Pay staff more to ease daycare staffing crisis, NDP Leader says in Sudbury

Child care educators have been unable to find enough staff to accommodate demand for spaces following the $10-a-day daycare promise made by the federal and provincial governments last year.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles was in Sudbury on Wednesday, joined by Sudbury MPP Jamie West, to hear from local staff who are hoping to get some support for higher wages.

They argue that to attract and retain workers, they must be able to pay competitive salaries.

“We’re done waiting in Sudbury,” said Tracy Saarikoski, executive director of Discovery Early Learning & Care.

“We are done waiting across the province, and it’s time for (Education Minister Stephen) Lecce to kinda step up.”

Saarikoski said there are more than 1,000 children on a waitlist for a space. For her part, Stiles said the recruitment problems are directly linked to pay.

“The crisis in education, these are all recruitment and retention issues, that is the challenge,” she said.

“If you’re not paying people a living wage, a decent wage, and giving them supports and benefits, it’s not worth it to them right now.”

Supervisor Tamara Taillefer said the centre receives heartbreaking calls from families to get updates.

“Families calling just to (ask), ‘Am I on your list? Where am I at? What number? Give me a number. When will there be a spot open?’ And to be honest, it’s almost like breaking five people’s hearts a day.”

In response to a question from CTV News, the province gave us this statement:

There are more than 1,000 children on a waitlist for a daycare spot in Sudbury/ (Ashley Bacon/CTV News)

“We recognize the tireless dedication of child care staff, and given increased demand as a result of the federal child care agreement, we are supporting the recruitment of thousands of new workers while increasing wages every year of the agreement. In addition to workforce strategy consultations, the minister’s advisory group was established as part of the government’s commitment to consult on the recruitment and retention of more ECEs.

“We increased wages by $1 per hour this year and will do so every year going forward in the agreement. Our government will go further to increase wages to recruit, retain and incentivize the best early child care educators to work in Ontario, so that families have access to affordable child care."

Officials said that increase was capped at $19 an hour and that most staff were already at that pay rate or higher.

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“This is an opportunity for the government to show that they really understand Ontarians,” Stiles said.

“They say that they’re working for working people but we just don’t see them delivering on that ever.”

Stiles will be in New Liskeard on Thursday, Kapuskasing and Hearst over the weekend and in Timmins on Monday.